Aorus 15X ASF review: Gaming laptop with RTX 4070 power and stamina

The Aorus 15X - a midrange gaming laptop - is powered by a Raptor Lake Core i7 and an RTX 4070 GPU. The total package retails for around $2,099. Its competitors include devices such as the Razer Blade 15 OLED (Early 2022), the Asus ROG Strix G17 G713PI, the MSI Katana 17 B13VFK and the Acer Predator Helios 300.

Only the back of the lid is made out of matte black metal - the base unit is made out of plastic. Gigabyte didn't add any fancy visual embellishments apart from the pattern which is etched into the smooth case surface. An LED strip (RGB, customizable) at the back of the base unit and the illuminated keys (RGB) add a pop of color to the device.

The case is put together flawlessly - there are no material excesses and the gap dimensions are all correct. The base unit can only be slightly twisted, the lid more so. But this all remains within a normal range. The battery (screwed in - not glued) and the rest of the laptop's innards can be accessed when the bottom shell is removed. The hinges hold the lid firmly in place and the maximum opening angle is around 130 degrees. It is possible to open the lid with one hand.

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The 15X can be placed pretty much in the middle range of all the 15.6 inch laptops: It is neither compact, nor is it particularly massive. The same thing can be said for its weight.

The 15X has two USB-A ports (USB 3.2 Gen 2) and one USB-C port (Thunderbolt 4). The latter supports Power Delivery and can output a DisplayPort signal. This, along with the HDMI port (2.1) and the dedicated Mini DisplayPort (1.4), makes for three video outputs. The computer doesn't feature an SD card reader.

The two dedicated video outputs, as well as the ethernet port, can be found on the back of the device. This means that the cables will not get in your way when you are using the laptop.

Under optimum conditions (no additional WLAN devices in the vicinity, small distance between laptop and server PC), the laptop's WLAN transfer rates are good, however, they remain slightly below average considering what is possible with this Wi-Fi chip (Intel AX211; Wi-Fi 6E). Wired network connection is made possible through a Gigabit Ethernet chip (RTL8125; 2.5 Gbit) by Realtek.

The device's webcam (2.1 MP, max. 1,920 x 1,080 pixels) doesn't have a cover, however, its quality is pretty standard. It struggles a little with color accuracy: Its color deviation of 11 means this falls within an unacceptable range (desirable: DeltaE less than 3).

Next to the usual documents (quick start guide and warranty information), the laptop doesn't come with any additional accessories.

After all the screws are removed from the bottom of the device, the bottom shell can be removed with the help of a flat spatula or palette knife. Subsequently, the RAM slots (both in use), SSD (PCIe 4), second M.2 2280 slot (PCIe 4), BIOS battery, WLAN module, fans, speakers and the battery can be accessed.

The 15.6-inch Gigabyte laptop comes with a two year warranty. Warranty extensions are not available.

The Chiclet keyboard's smooth keys have a medium-level lift and a clear pressure point. Each key is lit individually (three brightness levels). Negative: The keys' secondary functions don't catch any of the light, which means they are barely legible. While you are typing, the keys only have a tiny amount of give - but this shouldn't be too annoying. All-in-all, Gigabyte have provided this device with a good everyday keyboard.

A multi-touch click pad (roughly 12.1 x 7.6 cm) replaces a mouse on this computer - its smooth surface makes for easy use. The corners react to inputs, have a slight give and have a clear pressure point.

Gigabyte's 15X is equipped with a fast-reacting 16:9 format 240 Hz panel, which doesn't suffer from a PWM flicker at any brightness level. Brightness and contrast levels on the matte 15.6-inch display (2,560 x 1,440 pixels) fall within an acceptable range (> 300 cd/m² and 1,000:1).

Compared to its competitors, the Blade 15 excels thanks to its OLED panel.

* ... smaller is better

Straight out of the box, the display already shows great color reproduction: With a deviation of 1.54, it falls within an acceptable range (DeltaE < 3). Calibration brings the number down to 1.21 and helps more evenly display gray tones.

The display can depict nearly the entire sRGB color space - but not the AdobeRGB and DCI-P3 color spaces. This means most competitors do a bit of a better job with this.

In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 19035 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured.

The viewing angle stable IPS panel can be viewed from every position. Outside, the display is mostly visible, as long as the sun isn't shining too brightly.

The Aorus 15X is classed as a powerful gaming laptop - but it is not limited to just this area. Its good performance is made possible by Raptor Lake and Ada Lovelace. The presented test device can be purchased for around $2,099.

The computer's control center (Gigabyte Control Center) has all the usual performance modes (see table) and a superior AI boost function, which we used. This meant that the control center chose the best-fitting profile - "gaming mode" and "creator mode" for the benchmarks and "energy-saving idle mode" for the battery tests.

"Turbo mode" can in certain cases provide slightly improved performance - but this comes at a price: The fans are constantly working at full power. You can achieve the quietest working levels - close to completely silent - using "meeting mode". Here, the single-thread performance, which is more important for everyday use, shrinks to a lesser extent than the multi-thread performance. Even gaming would be possible at reduced settings.

Its Core-i7-13700HX processor (Raptor Lake) consists of 8 efficiency cores (no hyper threading, 1.5 to 3.7 GHz) and 8 performance cores (hyper threading, 2.1 to 5 GHz). In total, this adds up to 24 logistical CPU cores. The benchmarks provide results on par with the CPU's determined average.

The CPU tests of the Cinebench R15 benchmark were run with high (multi-thread) or high to maximum (single-thread) clock rates while connected to the mains. Using the battery, these rates dropped - significantly more under single-thread load than multi-thread load.

The CB15 loop test showed: The CPU turbo was utilized and continuous multi-thread load caused the clock rates to drop slightly from the first to the third run.

* ... smaller is better

The spec sheet already reveals: 15X users don't have to worry about a lack of performance. The smoothly running system is well prepared for demanding tasks such as rendering or gaming - the good PCMark results confirm this. The RAM transfer rates don't show anything unusual and are on a normal level for DDR5-4800 RAM.

* ... smaller is better

The standardized latency monitor test (web surfing, 4k video playback, Prime95 high-load) revealed a few abnormalities. This system doesn't seem to be suitable for real-time video and audio editing. Future software updates could bring some improvements - but they could possibly also worsen this issue.

* ... smaller is better

The 15X has space for two PCIe-4 SSDs in M.2-2280 format - however, only one is included with the laptop. The installed PCIe-4 model (1 TB) from Gigabyte delivers very good transfer rates. However: In the later course of the DiskSpd loop, occasional performance drops could be observed - probably due to thermal throttling.

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Aorus relies on a GeForce-RTX-4070 laptop GPU and grants it the maximum possible TGP of 140 watts (115 watts + 25 watts Dynamic Boost) - this is not fully utilized according to the Witcher 3 test. The GPU has 4,608 shaders, a 128 bit wide bus and fast GDDR6 memory (8,192 MB).

The benchmark results were higher than the previous RTX 4070 average. The dGPU mode didn't lead to any improvements. Switching between dGPU and Optimus didn't require a restart - Advanced Optimus is supported.

* ... smaller is better

The laptop is designed for QHD gaming at high to maximum settings. Higher resolutions would be possible with the corresponding monitor - possibly with reduced settings. The frame rates of the games we tested were on par with the determined RTX 4070 average. The dGPU mode increased the frame rates of some games slightly.

To check whether the frame rate remained consistent over a longer period of use, we ran the game The Witcher 3 for about 60 minutes in Full HD resolution using maximum quality settings. The game character wasn't moved. A drop in frame rate was not noticed.

To a certain extent, the 15X can fulfil the wishes of users who don't want too loud a gaming laptop. The energy profile "meeting mode" ensures an overall lower operating volume with reduced processing power. The latter is still sufficient enough for gaming at medium to partly high settings. The Witcher 3 test was run at an average frame rate of 69 FPS with a GPU TGP of about 67 watts.

The two fans usually work at a low speed at no load and in everyday use (office, Internet). However, it is not impossible for them to rev up - levels of up to 38 dB(A) are possible. Under load, it got very loud with maximum values of 58 dB(A) (stress test) and 54 dB(A) (Witcher 3 test).

The Aorus 15X is capable of quiet to practically silent operation. This requires the energy profiles "meeting mode" or "energy saving idle mode" to be used. The subsequent reduced performance of the computer is still more than enough for everyday use and even allows gaming at reduced settings.

Gigabyte's Control Center lets you control the fan. Various fan profiles are available, and an individual fan curve can also be created.

Noise Level

* ... smaller is better

The case temperatures remained within the green zone in everyday use (office, Internet). Under load (stress test, Witcher 3 test), the laptop heated up noticeably, but not excessively. The CPU temperatures are not a cause for concern.

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The stress test (Prime95 and Furmark in continuous use) simulates an extreme scenario to check how stable the system is under maximum load.

The CPU (P: 2.7 to 2.8 GHz, E: 2.1 to 2.2 GHz) began the test with medium clock rates. After a short amount of time, the clock rates sank to around 2 to 2.5 GHz (P-cores) and 1.8 to 1.9 GHz (E-cores). The GPU clock rate sank from 2.4 GHz to 2.1 GHz.

The stereo speakers produce a decent sound, but there is hardly any bass. Headphones or external speakers are recommended for a better sound experience.

(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (83 dB)Bass 100 - 315 Hz(-) | nearly no bass - on average 27.3% lower than median(-) | bass is not linear (15.1% delta to prev. frequency)Mids 400 - 2000 Hz(±) | higher mids - on average 5.8% higher than median(+) | mids are linear (4.8% delta to prev. frequency)Highs 2 - 16 kHz(+) | balanced highs - only 3.1% away from median(+) | highs are linear (6.3% delta to prev. frequency)Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (19.4% difference to median)Compared to same class» 72% of all tested devices in this class were better, 5% similar, 23% worse» The best had a delta of 6%, average was 17%, worst was 47%Compared to all devices tested» 48% of all tested devices were better, 8% similar, 44% worse» The best had a delta of 3%, average was 20%, worst was 65%

(±) | speaker loudness is average but good (81 dB)Bass 100 - 315 Hz(+) | good bass - only 4.6% away from median(+) | bass is linear (6.5% delta to prev. frequency)Mids 400 - 2000 Hz(+) | balanced mids - only 3.1% away from median(+) | mids are linear (5.9% delta to prev. frequency)Highs 2 - 16 kHz(+) | balanced highs - only 3.5% away from median(+) | highs are linear (6.8% delta to prev. frequency)Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz(+) | overall sound is linear (8.2% difference to median)Compared to same class» 2% of all tested devices in this class were better, 1% similar, 97% worse» The best had a delta of 6%, average was 17%, worst was 47%Compared to all devices tested» 2% of all tested devices were better, 0% similar, 98% worse» The best had a delta of 3%, average was 20%, worst was 65%

The Gigabyte laptop didn't show any abnormalities in terms of energy consumption. The rates were on a normal level for the installed hardware. The Witcher 3 test and stress test were run with relatively constant power consumption. The power connector (280 watts) is sufficiently sized.

* ... smaller is better

The 15.6-inch device achieved runtimes of 8:09 hours and 7:52 hours in the WLAN test (calling up websites via a script) and video test (short movie Big Buck Bunny (H.264 encoding, FHD) in a loop), respectively. During both tests, the notebook's energy-saving features were disabled and the display brightness was set to about 150 cd/m². The wireless modules were also disabled for the video test.

The Aorus 15 delivered good battery runtimes overall - not just for a gaming laptop. Taking into consideration the enormous battery capacity (99 Wh), these rates are not surprising. Nevertheless, Gigabyte's laptop is also ahead in terms of watt-hours.

While the Aorus 15X is designed for QHD gaming at high to maximum settings, it also performs well in other demanding areas such as video editing and rendering. The Core i7-13700HX and GeForce RTX 4070 laptop provide the necessary processing power. A super-fast PCIe-4-SSD (1 TB) ensures short loading times.

Powerful, enduring, quiet when needed - the Aorus 15X ASF can meet many of the demands placed on a modern gaming laptop.

The CPU and GPU work with consistently high clock rates. Noise and heat development are on the usual high level. However, quiet to completely silent operation is possible - with significantly reduced processing power. Nevertheless, this would still meet users' demands for everyday use and allow gaming at reduced settings.

The matte QHD screen (15.6 inch, IPS, 240 Hz) doesn't need to be critiqued. A Thunderbolt 4 port opens up expansion options (docking solution, external GPU). It can also be used to power the laptop via a USB-C power adapter (minimum 65 watts) - Power Delivery is supported. Battery runtimes of about 8 hours round off the overall package.

The Razer Blade 15 OLED could prove to be a viable alternative to this device. It offers less processing power than the Aorus laptop, but scores extra points with its more compact dimensions, lower weight and a high-contrast, true-color OLED screen.

The Aorus 15X ASF can be purchased in the setup which we tested for $2,099 on Amazon.

Aorus 15X ASF - 2023-04-0504/05/2023 v7Sascha Mölck

The present review sample was made available to the author as a loan by the manufacturer or a shop for the purposes of review. The lender had no influence on this review, nor did the manufacturer receive a copy of this review before publication. There was no obligation to publish this review.